Seventy is not for sissies. If you're a sissy, you'll get worse.

God’s Purpose in My Life

Hi, readers. Tonight is Tuesday…Bible Study night, remember? I think on Tuesday I will blog a little about God’s ways with me.

I’ve had many encounters with God…some obscure and some pretty close…I always meet Him in my Bible Study classes.

Tonight was no different. The group decided to read and study the Book of James. It is one of my favorites, if there is such a thing. I love God’s word. IT is very clear and gives instruction, inspiration, and encouragement.

We only completed 18 verses of Chapter one. I had put together some questions for them to answer as we read together. I read the entire book to them last Tuesday. This week I read the questions and then we reread those verses 1-18. My ladies enjoyed the read and enjoyed the lessons we learned and talked about.

Chapter one is all about perseverance. James, the brother of Jesus, wrote the book to teach us how to live our Christian lives. He points out to us that life can be full of trials and temptations. The trials lead us to a mature life in Christ, but the temptations which come from Satan lead us to sin and therefore death.

While we talked of temptations, I recalled a time in high school when I went to a convention in New York City. I was supposed to be in a training session, but the girls I was with wanted to go shopping instead. We did. I was a little hesitant about skipping the meeting, but I went anyway. While shopping, the other girls decided to shop lift one item each from the store we were in. I left in a hurry, hoping they wouldn’t hate me for being a coward. I was a coward. i could see my mom coming to get me out of jail! That thought was enough to deter me.

I mentioned that when I was teaching high school that my students were tempted all the time. Most of the time, they went with the temptation. I asked them once, what makes a moral child…they did not know what “moral” meant. I told them that knowing the difference between right and wrong and going with the “right” was moral. Then my students began to really lay one on their parents. “You can’t have moral children if the parents have no morals.”

I was shocked to hear them speak that way. I asked the students to write up an essay about how they would raise a moral child. Boy, did I get an ear-full. They spoke very bluntly about discipline. They wouldn’t do the same as their parents. They would punish their child by taking away the TV, the computer, the music, and anything else pleasurable. In other words, the teen of today does know right from wrong because somewhere along the way, they had learned that their parents were making mistakes by not giving them discipline when they needed it.

Isn’t it pleasant to hear that maybe the next generation will do right by their children?